Agenda item

To receive and consider the motion detailed below proposed by Cllr Hawker.

Westbury needs an A350 bypass as soon as possible, not least because heavy traffic flows along the A350 are expected to continue to grow for a wide range of reasons. Westbury Area Board calls on Wiltshire Council's cabinet, Wiltshire Strategic Economic Partnership and all other relevant stakeholders, without further delay, to restart substantive  and meaningful discussions and relevant technical work to identify an appropriate and practical route for, and to properly and diligently plan for the implementation of, an A350 Westbury Bypass that will both remove long distance traffic from the town and help to improve journey times along the local A350 corridor, on the basis that by the time the necessary research and planning stages are substantially completed government or other suitable funding is more likely to be available again.

Cllr Hawker thanked Jane Scott, Leader of Wiltshire Council and Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe for the hard work that was undertaken with the A350 Westbury Bypass up to and including 2009.

He went on to explain that the motion had been amended to reflect the current work that was being undertaken by Wiltshire Council in light of the Department of Transport proposing the setting up of new “Local Transport Bodies”, based on Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) geography.

Cllr Hawker outlined the key points he felt supported the motion;

·         There is heavy traffic on the A350

·         Traffic is expected to increase

·         Core Strategy supports the expansion of towns and as a direct consequence this will increase traffic

·         B&NES are proposing to implement an experimental weight restriction in Bath between the A36 Bathwick Street and the A36 Beckford Road (commonly known as the Cleveland Bridge restriction).  This restriction will effectively prevent a significant proportion of large HGVs (those over 18 tonnes) from travelling through Bath along the A36 and will be impact on the A350 in Westbury.

·         Seasonal heavy traffic due to routes to the Southwest

·         The A350 is a key economic transport route

·         Congestion is a blight on the town

The Chairman then took comments from those present.  A number of statements had been received prior the meeting. Points made at the meeting were;

·         The resolution, as it stands, is wide open for another attempt at an eastern bypass. Can we therefore have the resolution changed to say an eastern bypass will not be attempted again?

·         Is there really a need for a bypass?

·         The Board has previously supported a Motion for an AONB

·         After a very thorough investigation the Eastern route was not supported it would appear outrageous to start discussion again.

·         To withdraw the motion.

Cllr Jenkins raised a number of points, and acknowledged that this was an emotive subject:

·         Funding of a bypass is an issue

·         A bypass is key to economic regeneration

·         It will have an effect on employment

·         Improve travel times

·         The A350 through the town does get very congested at times

·         Traffic will increase by 44% between 2010 and 2035

·         The enquiry cost £4M and that this was money that did not go anywhere.

Jane Scott explained that at the enquiry the Inspectors had detailed that the usage of the road was not exceptional for a primary route, that the cost and the environmental impact outweighed need and also the Inspectors did not see a strong economic benefit.  She explained that she thought that in the current economic climate Government would be looking at schemes that dealt with the economy.  She went on to make clear that the Westbury Community needs to have a conversation about what should be done before the harder work is taken on by the Council. 

The Chairman explained that her major concerns were financial and that the Council had started to consider over 50 potential major transport schemes ranging in cost from £1m up to +£30m such as Westbury bypass. Each of the schemes would initially be evaluated using a recognised Department of Transport appraisal tool and then prioritised for discussion with the Local Enterprise Partnership. She proposed that the motion should be deferred but this was not supported by the rest of the Area Board membership.

Cllr Cuthbert-Murray supported the motion, emphasising that he did not support either the Eastern or Western route, but that a discussion did need to happen.

Alan Creedy Head of Service Sustainable Transport explained that work regarding the issues surrounding Yarnbrook was ongoing.  Growth on that side of Trowbridge was developing and access would be required to the new development.  However the developer would be paying for this.

The Chairman asked Cllr Hawker to sum up, his main points were;

·         It was the councillors’ role to work towards improving Westbury;

·         Analysis needs to be done to determine a route – this may take many years;

·         Everybody is aware that there is no money at present for a project such as this but that is not a reason not to be starting the discussion.

Decision

Westbury Area Board supports the motion that,

Westbury needs an A350 bypass as soon as possible, not least because heavy traffic flows along the A350 are expected to continue to grow for a wide range of reasons. Westbury Area Board calls on Wiltshire Council's cabinet, Wiltshire Strategic Economic Partnership and all other relevant stakeholders, as soon as reasonably possible, to restart substantive  discussions and relevant technical work to: a) identify an appropriate and practical route that will obtain planning permission under the new national and local planning regime currently being introduced, and;

 b) set out a vision and practical timescale for the implementation of an A350 Westbury Bypass that will both remove long distance traffic from the town and help to improve journey times along the local A350 corridor taking into account the likely timing and potential sources of funding including possible developer contributions from development schemes that would benefit from better A350 north-south connectivity.